Tesco signs up to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles

8 March 2019

Everyone is welcome at Tesco. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment where difference is embraced and valued.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day this week, Tesco has signed up to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles to reaffirm our commitment to achieving gender equality. This set of seven standards, developed by UN Women, promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. As signatories, we will collaborate with other businesses and share best practice as we continue to make progress on gender equality.

Whilst there is more to do, we are already taking action to support women to succeed in our business and in our supply chains. As members of the 30% Club, we share the belief that gender-balanced boards and senior management teams encourage better leadership and governance. 31% of our Board is female. To help develop future female leaders we have established a targeted development community supporting talented female colleagues.

Gender equality is one of the key focus areas of Tesco’s supply chain human rights strategy and we are partnering with NGOs and the wider industry to address challenges facing women in our supply chain. We have worked with UNICEF on the Assam Tea Project which protects girls and young women from exploitation. In its first phase the project helped to empower more than 35,000 adolescent girls. In Malawi we have supported the establishment of women’s welfare and gender committees to ensure gender issues are raised and acted upon.

“We are proud to become signatories of the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles. I passionately believe in the need for balanced representation of women in all parts of our company, supply chain and society.

“We have already done a lot of important work in this area, from supporting our network of Women in Tesco and their initiatives, to working with UNICEF to empower young women in tea growing communities. But we know that there is more to do and welcome the opportunity to collaborate with others to learn from and share best practice.”

You can find more information on how we are creating an inclusive environment at Tesco here.

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